Call | Sociology of Religion

Call for papers | Sociology of Religion

Coordinators:

Helena Vilaça (FLUP e IS-UP)

António Joaquim Costa (UM e CECS)

Donizete Rodrigues (UBI e CRIA)

For centuries, different models of the relationship between the state and the church prevailed in Europe, varying according to the current branch of Christianity (Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox), but having as common denominator the coincidence of national identity with religious identity. From the twentieth century on, the process of secularization at the macro level, the gradual religious disaffiliation of the new generations, the internal secularization of some sectors within the historically dominant churches, the successive migratory flows, the greater ease of geographical mobility, the emergence of social media, and the new social movements (centred on subjectivity and “grammar of the life world”) contributed to – and exponentiated – the diversification of identities of the societies of central countries.

The current situation of pluralism has contributed in the last two decades to reactive attitudes. The growth of far-right populist parties using arguments based on the reference to historical, cultural and religious identities is an example of this. However, it is also possible to observe religious oppositions to populism and the complicity between political power and religion. This scenario of complexity poses challenges of various kinds to reflexivity and research in the field of the sociology of religion. In this sense we call for the submission of papers proposals address topics such as:

• Nation-state identity and sovereignty claims based on religious principles
• The misuse of religion by individual or collective actors to promote specific interests in the context of the dynamics of social and political power.
• Secularist political and legal strategies in the regulation of religion
• Vindication of religiously motivated values in the fields related to private morals (sexuality, life ethics) and limitations on religious freedom
• Variations in political and religious attitudes and positions in generational terms
• New challenges within Catholicism: ordination of married men or women, inclusion of homosexual believers
• Internal plurality within religious groups: liberalizing attitudes and defending attitudes to fidelity to traditional normativity, tension that is transversal to Catholics, historical and Protestants and Evangelicals, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others.

We therefore invite all sociologists, researchers and practitioners, to submit research abstract proposals in the academic and non-academic context in response to our Call.

Posters and visual documents will be accepted as short films or short films focused on projects or interventions. These proposals, notwithstanding the differences between academic and non-academic contexts, should be formulated considering a theoretical framework, objectives, methodologies used, diagnosis, results and conclusions.